East Midlands
Youth Theatre
Artistic Staff 2009
Project: Phantasmagoria
Edward Goggin Director
Edward has directed plays, musicals and operas. He read Drama and Music at Birmingham University and furthered his studies with an MA in Musical Theatre. Edward began his career working as an Assistant Director at The King’s Head Theatre working on productions such as The Shoe Horn Sonata with Susannah York and Listen to the Wind with Paula Wilcox. He was also Assistant Director for a concert of Vivian Ellis’ music: Spread a Little Happiness (Adelphi Theatre, London), Damn Yankees (Bridewell); and worked as the Musical Director on productions including A Swell Party (Drayton Court Theatre), The Fantasticks starring Jonathon Morris, and The Famous Five (UK Tour) which featured the young Jon Lee (S Club 7) and Olivia Hallinan (Sugar Rush, Lark Rise to Candleford).
Edward went on to direct productions including The Threepenny Opera (Birmingham Summer Festival), Pipe Dream (Barber Institute), Grand Hotel (Edinburgh Festival), Alfie (Drayton Court Theatre), How He Lied to Her Husband / Overruled (King’s Head, Islington), and Royal Variety (The Man in the Moon). He directed a workshop production of Saturday Night for Stephen Sondheim (Bridewell), and the new musicals Tin Pan Pals (Drayton Court Theatre), and Charlie Sexboots (which started at the Man in the Moon, Chelsea and went on to The Circus, Stratford and The Boxer Rebellion Theater, Chicago).
Edward directed and devised Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? and Lonely Heart for the Workhouse Theatre, London, Chanson, and The Other Woman at the Tricycle, Kilburn. Edward has also taught and directed for many drama schools and worked on Brecht’s The Causcasian Chalk Circle for the Youth Theatre at Salisbury Playhouse.
Edward has been the Resident Director on several West End musicals including Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind (Aldwych Theatre, London), and The Woman in White (Palace Theatre, London) where he worked alongside Trevor Nunn directing Maria Friedman and Michael Crawford, and subsequently rehearsed new performers into the show including Michael Ball, Anthony Andrews, Ruthie Henshall and Simon Callow. Edward was associated with the hit musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for a number of years, as the Childrens’ Director for the original production at the London Palladium, directed by Adrian Noble and choreographed by Gillian Lynne, and became the Resident Director, mounting the show around the UK and at The Theatre by the Bay in Singapore, working with artists such as Anton Rodgers, Brian Blessed, Jason Donovan, Brian Conley, Wayne Sleep, Paul O’Grady, Christopher Timothy and Richard O’Brien.
In the past year Edward has worked on The Cunning Little Vixen (Royal College of Music), Stig of the Dump (Tabard Theatre, Chiswick), scenes from seven different operas (Royal College of Music), and the workshop of a new musical called Fred and Gladys. Future plans include Into the Woods for the Betty Wivell Academy in South London, and the development of several pieces of new writing for production in 2010.
Jonathon Palmer Associate Director
Jonathon graduated from De Montfort University with a degree in Performing Arts to then do a post graduate certificate in acting at Drama Studio London. He continues to pursue a career in acting (As Jonathon Finlay) encompassing both stage and television whilst also becoming involved with writing, teaching and directing. He has been the part-time drama teacher at Jacques Prevert Ecole Francaise for the past five years; writing and directing all their end of year shows.
His first experience of working with young people came as a workshop leader for The English Shakespeare Company and he continues to direct children’s shows at the Riverside Studios in West London; productions include ‘Wind in the Willows’, ‘High School Musical’, Whistle Down The Wind’ and ‘Mary Poppins’ amongst many others. Jonathon has just completed directing a devised piece for young people at the Waterman’s Art centre.
